03 December 2012

Masha Reva is a 25-year-old fashion designer originally from Odessa, Ukraine. She graduated from the Kiev National University of Technology and Design with a MA in fashion. She is now living in London, studying Women’s Wear at Central St Martins. Her new collection in collaboration with Syndicated of Kiev is called Botanical Layers. The collection is inspired by nature and GUI from Photoshop. The prints are juxtaposing social networks and natural environment creating a metaphorical
botanical garden of Photoshop layers and loading bars. See more;

Dora Moutot (DM) interviews Masha Reva (MR) / Click imges to enlarge
Sweatshirts of the collection are available on sndct.com

DM: Hi Masha!

You explained that the visual stream of information on social network and blogs inspired your previous very opulent ” Merging 2012” last collection. Were the prints made of Internet images that you recycled? How did you work on this previous collection?

MR: The project started at was a time when my friends and I were in the need for some crazy projects without any boundaries. We created more of an art concept than a fashion lookbook. My idea began from a book I found while I was in New York. The concept came together with the help of this book and images found on the Internet. I created the textile prints and we organized the shooting in details with the help of Julie Pelipas, an amazing stylist.

(Image below is from the previous collection, see the whole MERGIN collection here)

DM: In your new collection “Botanical layers”, you seem to be inspired by the Photoshop interface. How important is the Internet and the computer in your work? How do you use both?

MR: Well, the Internet, Photoshop and I are totally inseparable! That is probably why I think in computer-ish way so much. But it also worries me: the relation to the to virtual world and the separation from the reality. I design all my textile prints in Photoshop and when I do, I try to not check my Facebook page. Big effort!

MR: It is well known that all thoughts are in the air. In my opinion this idea of integration of computer interfaces in our everyday life and furthermore in clothes is very natural. It is all about us, our generation, it’s happening here and now.

DM: It’s the first time that I see a collection taking inspiration of the Internet and computer in such a sophisticate and beautiful way. Usually it’s always used in a very 90’s voluntary tacky kind of way. What was the inspiration for this collection? Why did you mix digital aesthetics with romantic flower prints?

MR: I imagined my own hero. My hero would be walking through beautiful botanical garden; his/her clothes would be reflecting the mood of the time. The prints look like a quick mood-boards made with help of computer. The collection emphasizes on our relation to nature today. I have a nostalgic perception of it.

DM: How do you think the Internet and new technologies are going to transform fashion?

MR: Fashion has always been reflecting the world and its mood and it will keep doing it forever. In Fashion history books in the future, our generation will be mentioned as the Internet-generation. Hard to say in which way transformations are going to be felt and seen. There is already a big influence of the virtual in the way we are now presenting and buying fashion collections.

A digital art based research which encourages the dissemination of creative concepts and aesthetics from fields such as Computer Graphics, Internet & Video Art with a high emphasis on abstract and geometric aesthetics as well as on experimental processes and techniques